Title: How to develop cognitive skills through playing in pre-school contexts

Authors: Vasiliki Brinia; Paraskevi Psoni

Addresses: Athens University of Economics and Business, 76, Patision Str., Athens, PC 10434, Greece ' Athens University of Economics and Business, 76, Patision Str., Athens, PC 10434, Greece

Abstract: The present study presents a traditional - non-digital - game, which aims at providing pre-school teachers with an innovative, experiential method of teaching cognitive skills to preschoolers. This game is originally designed in order for preschoolers to understand the meaning and the importance of the terms 'money' and 'enterprises'. Teachers themselves are exposed to the same playful experience in order to detect - before and after the game - their perceptions of the notions-to-teach and the game as a teaching method. Most of the interviewed teachers recognise the importance of playfulness in teaching as well as the importance of pupils understanding such notions at such an early age, which is also highlighted in the literature. The undermined importance of developing cognitive notions in preschoolers is underlined and this paper fulfils this gap by presenting an innovative approach of international value.

Keywords: playfulness; game-based learning; experiential learning; interventionist non-directional approach; cognitive skills; preschool teachers' perceptions.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTCS.2019.096869

International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 2019 Vol.10 No.1, pp.1 - 11

Received: 05 Apr 2018
Accepted: 20 Apr 2018
Published online: 12 Dec 2018 *

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